Quantum Loophole has completed its second crossing of the Potomac River for a 40-mile fiber network that will connect data centers in Northern Virginia with its campus near Adamstown, the company said Monday.
The river crossing near the Point of Rocks Bridge is 3,000 feet long and is the second and final crossing the company has planned for its network conduit system, called "QLoop," according to a press release.
The first Potomac River crossing, near Leesburg, Va., is 3,900 feet long and was completed in December 2022.
Both bores go more than 90 feet below the Potomac River bedrock, according to the press release.
When completed in its entirety, QLoop will snake from outside Ashburn, Va., up through Dickerson, Md., and to Quantum Loophole's over 2,100-acre Frederick County campus, then back down a western corridor near U.S. 15 and around Leesburg, according to a Quantum Loophole map.
Quantum Loophole estimates that both the QLoop fiber ring and a 240-megawatt power project on the company's Frederick County campus will be completed in the spring of 2024.
QLoop will be able to transmit data signals in less than half of a millisecond round-trip.
The announcement comes a week after the Frederick County Planning Commission approved the site plan for a 450,000-square-foot data center on Quantum Loophole's campus off Manor Woods Road near Adamstown.
Aligned Data Centers, the Texas-based company developing the data center, is the first applicant to win approval from the county for that campus. More applications for other data centers are expected.
Quantum Loophole's campus is designed so that individual companies can build data centers on its land and hook up to Quantum Loophole's amenities, including the QLoop fiber network and its sewer, water, roads and power infrastructure.
Planning Commissioners grappled with Aligned Data Center project's immensity and the effects it may have on the county's power demands and other infrastructure before narrowly voting to approve the site plan 4-3 on Wednesday.
A county planner and those who voted to approve the site plan said that under the county's current ordinance for critical digital infrastructure, considerations on the facility's electricity demands were outside the commission's purview.
Aside from the first 240-megawatt power project, Quantum Loophole anticipates adding an additional 336 megawatts of power to its Frederick County campus.
Construction of road and sewer infrastructure, as well as land grading, is underway at Quantum Loophole's Frederick County campus, according to the press release.
(14) comments
i did not see in the article as to what type of data this station is to put out,i did see the mention of mega watts is this supposed to be a electrical generation site. i wonder if this project is someones pipe dream. l
Leonard. This is a data center for the cloud. Maybe you do not understand it, but basically this is going to be a big building full of computers. The reference to MW is the amount of energy this building full of computers will CONSUME (not generate).
...Aside from the first 240-megawatt power project, Quantum Loophole anticipates adding an additional 336 megawatts of power to its Frederick County campus.
And this 576 megawatts will be coming from where? A1,000 megawatts is a good size power plant. Do they plan to build one? Where? What fuel? What is the environmental impact?
This may be a good thing but it doesn't look like folks have done there homework.
Riptide,
Remember, "...considerations on the facility's electricity demands were outside the commission's purview."
Therefore, nothing can be done. It's written in stone. Can't be changed. It's a 'purview thing', we wouldn't understand.
We'll just have to trust Quantum Loophole to do the right thing.
If you can't trust a corporation with a name like Quantum Loophole, who can you trust?
‘Trust’ Ha! Nice one Nat.
I hope they're not building a data center that's going to be used to mine cryptocurrency! The energy needs for crypto mining are enormous.
That is not a data center. Two different things, though they both use computers.
We don't need no stinking data center, build more apartments !!
Quote:
"Planning Commissioners grappled with Aligned Data Center project's immensity and the effects it may have on the county's power demands and other infrastructure before narrowly voting to approve the site plan 4-3 on Wednesday.
A county planner and those who voted to approve the site plan said that under the county's current ordinance for critical digital infrastructure, considerations on the facility's electricity demands were outside the commission's purview."
That's right -- no purview! Planning Commissioners should not worry their pretty little heads about the effects the data center, or any proposed development, will have on our infrastructure, like the electric grid. Just be good boys and girls and vote to approve.
Remember, growth is always good! The Earth will keep expanding and we will have infinite resources! [rolleyes]
I believe what they were saying is that they thought it SHOULD be under their purview, but the regulations are outdated for a project of this type. Their hands were tied. It's like being on a jury; you can only judge based on what was presented in court.
Shift you are exactly correct. Several of the Planning Commissioners wished for more regulatory aspects than the current Data Center ordinance addresses.
Counting shrubs and quizzing an applicant on paint colors is not quite sufficient for a 126 MILLION watt facility. With no requirements for sustainability or renewable electricity sourcing this one facility with reverse ALL of the goals of the County government's sustainability initiative. (and this one parcel is planned to have three more such facilities.)
Before you write a puff piece based on a press release learn what a 'Fracout' is.
Ask some hard question about the already sustained environmental damage, about the inherent risks of horizontal drilling, about the true impact of drilling fluid spills on ecosystems, and oh yeah I almost forgot ... ask why Frederick County put a Stop-Work order on the project.
Just sayin'
[thumbup][thumbup] Lorax.
Thanks for staying on top of this, Lorax.
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